REVIEW: Better Call Saul – “Inflatable”

The following is a review of the seventh episode of the second season of Better Call Saul, available on AMC in the U.S. and on Netflix in Europe. Expect story spoilers.

In the seventh episode of this season of Better Call Saul (“Inflatable”), Jimmy makes a life-changing decision, Mike helps his daughter-in-law again, and Kim ponders what offer she should accept. Inflatable is another memorable episode of Better Call Saul.

Gordon Smith has, so far, been one of the best writers on Better Call Saul. Smith has written two of the absolute best episodes – Five-O; Gloves Off – and also wrote the great RICO-episode. As I noticed that Gordon Smith was attached to this episode as its writer, I was extremely excited to see what kind of episode this was.

I was so happy to find out that Gordon Smith wrote another excellent episode. Inflatable was so much fun and moved the story threads along in a very pleasing manner. For someone who has been worried about how much the show relied on Breaking Bad-easter eggs, this episode really calmed me down. This show is still at its best when it focuses on its main character, as far as I am concerned. Inflatable might be my favorite episode of the season, so far.

And it all started with the episode opener/teaser. It was a really nice flashback sequence, which sort of shows us where Jimmy got his start as a con-man – where Jimmy started to slip. It’s also a really heartbreaking sequence, as it sort of confirms some of the ideas that Chuck put in Kim’s head a couple of episodes ago.

Omar gave Jimmy a real wake-up call this episode. Jimmy thought he could just quit and keep the bonus, but that was more complicated than he had hoped. I think everyone had an idea of what was going to happen when Jimmy smiled after seeing the dancing inflatable figure. This brought us to what-might-be my favorite montage of the series, so far.

For someone who wrote about the whole ‘square peg in a round hole’ last week, it was really pleasing to see Jimmy acknowledge that he was the living embodiment of that metaphor. What I really enjoyed about that scene, in particular, was that Jimmy said he thought Clifford was a good guy. Jimmy meant it. Clifford gave Jimmy a shot – trusted him where others might not have. Clifford isn’t a Chuck or even what Jimmy thought Howard was. Clifford was a good guy that Jimmy used.

Another scene I really enjoyed was seeing Kim on the parking garage roof, while having a smoke. She had just accidentally called Schweikart ‘Howard’, and, as she was having a smoke, the screen shows someone walking across the road. I thought this was a really elegant way of showing us what Kim was thinking. Schweikart is just another Howard. Schweikart and Cokely is just another HHM – she is just crossing the road from one firm to the next.